Early matchlock guns are extremely rare ... 1892- Advent of automatic handguns. The first automatic pistol was created by Joseph Laumann in 1892. But the Borchardt pistol of 1893 was the first ...

These early pistols could only fire a single shot ... they perform better in muddy conditions than revolvers. The Colt 1911 semi-automatic pistol was used by the U.S. military for decades ...